Word Count, Really Important!

You've written your science fiction or fantasy novel.  You've polished it.  Added and taken away.  You set it aside with a sigh of relief.  It's 50,000 words.  Now what do you do?

It may not sound like a big deal but it is.  It's all about business and money.   Economics 101.  It has to do with the cost of making a book and being able to sell it.  People just don't by really long or really short books.  There are exceptions of course as with anything but on average, this is true.  As Janice Hardy said, "Readers won't pay $16 for a 2500-page paperback."  This is a gross exaggeration but you get the point.

Rule of thumb is 80,000 to 100,000 words for a typical work of fiction.  If you hit this threshold, you're likely good; although, the sci-fi and fantasy example above tends toward the longer side.  There are genre rules and here's a breakdown.  Sources I've used are Writer's Digest and Rachelle Gardner's blog, but there are multiple search results out there for this topic.

Science fiction and fantasy:  100,000 to 115,000 is thought to be best.
Romance:  80,000 to 100,000 words (although serial romance or certain publishers, such as Harlequin, have their own rules.
Middle Grade:  20,000 to 45,00 words.
Young Adult:  55,000 to 70,000.
Cozy Mysteries:  About 75,000 words.

These are just rules of thumb.  The shorter word count for Middle Grade makes sense as I've personally found younger kids don't yet have the attention span for the longer.  While you'll see most others fall around that 80,000 mark.  Even with Young Adult and Cozy Mystery, you'll likely be okay with 80,000.  And again, there are definitely exceptions.  The Twilight Series is considered young adult and definitely exceeds the limits above.  An important note is the writing.  Stephenie Meyer's writing was exceptional.  It broke all the molds and set the bar higher.  The prevailing wisdom is that longer books are the exception.  As a new writer, I can't bank on being exceptional quite yet.  So, I stick to the rules.

Janice Hardy does an excellent job of giving tips to cutting down a high word count or bulking up a short word count.  Check out her blog if you haven't already.

One last thing to say about word count.  This really stressed me out in the beginning but I also like to know what certain standards are.  Do your best.  If you're a couple thousand words short or too high, don't sweat it.  If you're falling very low, you may want to take another look at your plot or see if certain things can be fleshed out.  Also, remember longer doesn't always mean better.  The last thing you want is for a prospective publisher or agent to turn you down on word count alone.  Good luck!